Not Quite Maximum Ride
by obugg7
Summary: Sure, you know that Jeb Batchelder rescued Max and the flock from the nightmarish School. But did you know that there were 7 other bird-kids that he neglected to take with him? The other bird-kids were stuck there for another 6 years, until one of the erasers helps them escape. Now they live by themselves somewhere in the mountains, being as free as birds (or so they think...).
1. Chapter 1

**POV Atia (pronounced: AY- shah)**

I woke up and looked around the room. Switch was fast asleep, her golden hair ruffled. I climbed out of bed and stretched out my chocolate colored wings.

You heard me right: _wings_. We all have them, well, except for Kimu. Kimu is an eraser, a half-human, half-wolf hybrid created at the School. The School is what we call the science lab that we were created in, grew up, and finally escaped from. My flock and me, we are 2% avian, as in, bird, and we can all fly (except for Kimu). Please, please, _please_ don't ask if I know a girl named Maximum Ride. She and a few other bird-kids escaped the School with Jeb Batchelder, one of the scientists there. They _left us_ there. For _years_. Oh, it was _awful!_ They left us there without so much as a second glance, and I hate all of them for it. But back to me. My flock, we all have other powers, too.

Like me, for example, I can navigate as if I have a GPS installed in my brain. I can see what everyone is doing, and hear what everyone is saying, but only if I've met them. It only works if I'm focusing on it, though, so it's not like I'm a creepy stalker who watches your every move. It's really useful.

I walked down the hallway to the bathroom, flicked on the light, and stepped inside. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and brushed back my short, brown hair. I reached for my toothbrush and brushed my teeth. When I finished, I walked down the hall to Kimu's room.

Kimu was not much taller than I was, and she had dark hair flowing down to her tailbone. I brushed the hair out of her face and nudged her shoulder. She woke up almost instantly.

"Hey," she said. She rubbed her eyes and then sat up. "You want breakfast?"

I nodded and followed her downstairs. When we got to the kitchen, I took a seat at the table, resting my chin on my hand. After a few minutes of silence, I heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. I turned and saw Crevice standing in the doorway.

Crevice was taller than Kimu. He had dark, shaggy hair that would only be able to be cut if you did it while he was sleeping. (Once it got really long, but he wouldn't let anyone cut it, so Kimu snuck up on him while he was sleeping and just snipped it off with a pair of scissors). He had dark eyes and pale skin. He never said much, and he didn't show much emotion. His power was that he could burn things by touching them. Not like, catch them on fire, but sear and scorch, and eventually melt or burn through. He was usually quite calm, but if you did just the right thing, you could set him off, and that could put you in severe danger.

"Hi," he said as he lumbered to the table. He sat down across from me as Kimu brought over a large plate of waffles and bacon. **(Author's note: Mmm… Waffles.)**

"Good morning, Crevice. Did you sleep well?" Kimu asked sweetly. She looked over at Crevice, and he looked back at her and shrugged. "That's good. Have you checked on anyone today?" Crevice shook his head slowly, chewing on a piece of bacon.

Just then, Switch walked in, feet dragging. She yawned and sat down next to Crevice.

"Hey," she said. "Everyone's fine, I presume?"

Crevice shrugged. I gave smiled and Switch a thumbs-up.

"I'm fine, Switch," Kimu said. "Seen anyone yet?"

"Yeah," Switch said, "Tara and Smosh are both up, and I don't know about Kaito or Artie."

After that, we sat in silence for a while. Then Tara came bouncing down the stairs.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully. Tara was tall, taller than everyone, and she had long, strawberry-blond hair. She sat down next to me. Then Smosh came down.

He was muscular and very strong. That was his power; he could lift up to 7 tons, last time I checked. He had short brown hair and blue eyes the color that I had imagined the ocean is, although I'd never seen it. He gave everyone a polite smile and sat down next to Tara.

More silence.

Then Kaito flew in through an opened window and landed clumsily next to Kimu, his light brown wings beating powerfully. "Tada!" he said. Switch snorted and Kaito shot her an angry glance. "How is everyone today?"

"Well," Switch started grumpily, "it doesn't look like anyone is dead, injured, or sick. What do you think?"

Kaito glared at her. He turned himself invisible and was very quiet on his feet so that no one knew where he was (although I could've checked if I wanted to. But there wasn't much of a point; I knew what would happen shortly).

"Ow!" Switch shrieked, rubbing the back of her head. Kaito was back where he had been and was now visible.

He smirked at her."Oh, no," he said sarcastically. "Did I hit you? Oops. I'm so sorry, my hand must've slipped," he said as he sat down.

Switch snarled at Kaito. She morphed her appearance to Kaito's. They looked exactly the same; besides the fact that Switch's clothes that fit her small frame before were now tightly pressed against her skin now. _I guess that's what Kaito would look like in girl's clothes,_ I thought. "Hey, it's me," she mocked. As always, her mimicking was perfect. You wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. "I'm the idiot who likes to sleep on the roof and fly through window even though the front door is unlocked." She morphed back to herself, looking satisfied. Tara smiled. Crevice chuckled and then tried to cover it up with a cough, which didn't fool anyone. Kaito glared at switch, and she glared right back at him.

They looked so similar, even when Switch wasn't morphed to look like him. They both had golden blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a menacing look that tells you to back off with just one glance.

I sometimes admired that switch stood up to Kaito, but other times I found it quite stupid. Kaito had a nasty temper, and was very creepy. For one thing, he could turn invisible, and he used that power on everyone. Also, he slept with his eyes open, which, if you ask me, is creepy no matter who it is. And with his temper, he was unpredictable.

Switch, on the other hand, was feisty and not nearly afraid of Kaito as she should've been. She, too, could be quick to anger, and nearly half the words that came out of her mouth were sarcastic. She was cynical and stubborn, and usually not in a great mood.

They were both not great around people, and if locked in a room together, they would be at each other's throats by the first hour. Nobody knew why they hated each other so much, not even me. A few years ago, at the lab, they didn't really mind each other. But I guess one of them did something to the other that I didn't know about. So for the past few months, or maybe years-I don't really know how long- they haven't gotten along. Like, at all.

"Hey," Smosh interrupted. "Where's Artie?"

Everyone stopped as we realized that Artie hadn't come downstairs yet.

"I'll get her," Tara volunteered. She ran upstairs.

When they came back downstairs, Artie asked Kimu, "Did you remember to save any for me?"

"Of course, sweetie," she replied. Kimu brought over a large plate, enough to fill the stomach of an 11-year-old bird-kid who requires about 9,000 calories a day and who hasn't eaten anything for the past 10 hours. As Artie was lifting up her fork, a small object came crashing through the window and landed under the table. It opened up and thick smoke started to fill the air.


	2. Chapter 2

**POV: Switch**

We started coughing and gagging on the gas. Then large, bulky shapes came crashing the windows. They brought the putrid odor of wild dogs. _Erasers_, I thought.

"Good morning," an Eraser snarled. "What a pleasant surprise." His lips curled into a wicked grin, showing all of his sharp, yellow teeth. Then he lunged at Tara.

Tara unsheathed her 7 inch long claws and scratched the first Eraser across the face. I'm surprised she acted so quickly: these were the first Erasers we'd faced since we'd escaped the School. We were out of practice, or, at least Tara was. The Eraser staggered back, his face dripping blood, and Tara tackled him to the ground. More Erasers shuffled in.

I kicked an incoming Eraser in the face, and when he recovered, his nose was gushing blood. He charged at me again, and I kicked him in the face again. That time, though, he stayed on the ground. I looked at the rest of my flock.

Smosh was wrestling 3 Erasers at once. They were putting up quite a fight, scratching at his arms, but they were no match for his superior strength.

I turned my head to see an Eraser kicking at… air? Then it doubled over and slammed into the wall. By what? Then it hit me (not the Eraser, my thought)! Kaito! The Eraser was shoved against the wall by what appeared to be nothing and was soon unconscious. As much as I hate him, I have to admit, Kaito really knew how to use his power to his advantage.

I looked to my left to see Crevice being bowled over by an Eraser. It bit at his ankles, drawing blood, but Crevice simply put his hands on the Eraser's dirty, matted fur. After a few seconds, the Eraser howled in pain and backed away, looking at his scorched skin.

I heard Artie yelling at the Erasers. "Leave! Go away!" with her power, she could communicate with animals. The wolf part of the Erasers was obeying, while the human part was commanding itself to stay. They were too conflicted to even fight.

An Eraser came charging at me, and I got ready to fight it off. But then Atia dropped down on it from above. She was able to knock it out with just one blow. She looked at me and flew back up.

Kimu, like all the other Erasers, was in her wolfed-out form, attacking anything coming towards her. Damn, she's scary. I mean, she's a great fighter and all, and we would probably still be in cages if not for her, but still. Scary.

She was scratching and biting and growling and tackling Erasers left and right. She was moving so fast that I could hardly see her.

Then I was shoved over and tackled by an Eraser. It grabbed my hair with its filthy paw and started banging my head into the floor. _Slam._ Ow! _Slam._ Ow! _Slam. _Ow! _Slam. _Ow! I felt the skin on the back of my head split, and I winced. Okay, so I figured that my head was bleeding, and I was pretty sure I would be unconscious soon if he continued banging my head on the floor. So I lifted my leg and shoved my foot into his abdomen. He was pushed back a couple of feet. I jumped up and cringed at the searing pain in the back of my head. I ignored the pain and leaped onto the Eraser. I grabbed the fur on its head and started yanking it back and forth. Then I heard a _snap_, and the Eraser fell limp to the floor.

"Everyone!" I heard Kaito yell, the smoke making his voice hoarse. "Meet me at the top of the Tree!"

I ran out the door and leaped into the air. I flew up, my light brown wings flapping hard. I always loved the color of my wings. They were like the color of autumn leaves, with some red and orange in them, but mostly brown. I flew not to the top of the large pine tree in our front yard, but to the bottom of a steep cliff a little ways away.

Kaito and Atia were already there, and I was followed down by Crevice, Smosh, Tara, and Kimu. Then Artie flew down, looking a little happier about this battle than the rest of us, probably because it was the only real one that she could remember.

"Good plan with the code-words, dude," Smosh said to Kaito. "All the Erasers think we're in the tree."

Kaito smiled.

"Okay, any injuries?" Kimu asked.

"I broke a claw, and my ribs are bruised, but that's it," Tara said.

"Uh… I think my nose is broken," Kaito said, rubbing the bridge of his nose tentatively.

"Nobody even attacked me," Artie said cheerfully.

"My arms are all scratched up," said Smosh, "but it's not too bad."

"Couple bruises. Bloody nose. Nothing serious," Kimu said.

"Ugh…" I started. "My head is killing me." I held my hand to my head, and when I brought it back down to look at it, it was covered in blood.

Tara came over and looked at my head. Her face went pale. "Um… Switch? This looks really bad. What happened?"

"An Eraser bashed my head on the floor," I explained. "But it can't be that bad. I mean, it's not like"- I stopped and looked at Atia.

Atia was kneeling over, leaning against the wall of the cliff. I guess that, because she couldn't talk, nobody noticed how quiet she had been. She looked up, her eyes filled with pain and worry. She unfurled her wings, and her right one was bent at an awkward angle. She jumped up and tried to fly, but her wing wouldn't move correctly or in time with the other, and she fell back to the ground clumsily.

Everyone looked worried and pitiful.

"We need to leave this house," Kaito said. "Like, today."

"Are you crazy?" I asked. "We can't leave _now_!"

"No, I'm not crazy," Kaito said. "Why can't we leave? They know we're here."

"Well, both Kimu and Atia can't fly, and Smosh can't carry _both_ of them _and_ all of our stuff _and _fly all at once," I pointed out. "Plus, we have no idea where to go. Double plus, if something goes wrong, we'll be miles away from here. Triple plus, some of us actually like it here, and care if we leave."

Kaito was practically growling. "If we stay here, they'll come back and kill us or worse. Those Erasers were sent for a reason. They know where we are, and they know how to get to us. We go."

I stomped up to him, losing my balance as the world spun around me, but pulled myself up. I stood in front of him, only inches away. He was a good 5 inches taller than me, so I had to look up at him. I tried to look as menacing as possible. "We stay! You don't get to put my family in danger just because you don't trust our safety here for a little while more!"

"We go!" Kaito said, his voice rising. "You don't get to put my family in danger just because you don't trust our safety anywhere_ but_ here for more than a little while!" He shoved me backwards. I stumbled, but quickly pulled myself up.

"Don't touch me!" I spat.

"Oops. Too late," Kaito said. He kicked out his leg and then brought it back in, wrapping his foot around my ankle. My foot was pulled out from underneath me, and I fell backwards. The breath flew out of my lungs as I landed on my back.

Then I jumped back up and punched him in the jaw. He winced, and I saw rage flash in his eyes. He lunged at me, but I moved out of the way. Then he pulled himself up, whirled around, and shoved me against the wall of the cliff. Before I could move, he came over and held me against the rock with his forearm pushed against my throat.

I couldn't breathe, and black spots were starting to dance around my vision. I felt him grab my hair as I saw the rest of our flock gather around Kaito, yanking on his shirt and trying to pry his hands off of me. He slammed my head into the wall, in the same spot where the Eraser had. It hurt like hell, and it sent waves of pain shooting through my skull. I cried out in pain, but when Kaito is on a streak like this, nothing stops him. Then he did it again, and everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**POV: Tara**

We watched in horror as Switch's eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp under Kaito's grasp. Kaito released his grip on her, and she crumpled to the ground. Everyone stared, dumbfounded, until Crevice spoke up.

"What the _hell_ is the matter with you?!" Crevice shouted at Kaito. He didn't even bother to try and hide his anger. "You might've killed her!" He motioned to Smosh, who rushed over to Switch and started to examine her head.

Kaito looked surprised to hear Crevice yelling. "Oh, please," he said, recovering from the shock. "She was asking for it. Anyways, why do _you_ care so much?" He smirked at Crevice, who obviously knew what he was getting at.

Crevice blushed as he said, "Yeah, well that doesn't give you the right to try and kill her!"

Kaito rolled his eyes and snorted. "Well, I didn't kill her, so no biggie."

We all looked at Smosh, who looked up at us. "She's unconscious," he said, standing up. "I'm pretty sure she has a concussion. She'll be fine, but seriously, dude,"- he turned to Kaito, "not cool."

Artie tugged on my sleeve. "Can we go home, yet?" she asked impatiently.

"Uh… yeah, I guess," Kimu said. "I bet all the other Erasers are gone by now."

Smosh picked up Switch carefully in one arm and scooped up Kimu in the other. Atia reluctantly walked over to Kaito, who was the next strongest after Smosh. Kaito lifted Atia up, being careful around her damaged wing. He jumped up and flapped his wings. He was obviously struggling to keep up his weight and Atia's, but he would never admit any type of weakness, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to fly upwards. Smosh leaped up, too. We all followed them back up to the house, which was clear of Erasers.

When we got inside, nobody bothered to clean up the kitchen. I followed Smosh upstairs, but when he turned towards Switch and Atia's room to put Switch in her bed, I turned the other way and went into the bathroom. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My face was soaked in sweat and blood, which thankfully wasn't mine. I washed off my face because, yes, even I, the mutant bird-kid, have her standards. I brushed back my long, strawberry-blond hair.

Then I heard a knock on the door."It's me."

I opened the door and let Artie in. She was the youngest out of all of us, and also the shortest. I, however, was the tallest, so Artie only reached to about my ribcage. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me. "I don't want to leave," she said into my shirt.

I know, honey," I said, stroking her short, curly, brown hair. "But it's not safe here. Not anymore, at least."

"But, where will we go?" she asked.

"I don't know. We'll figure something out, though," I said confidently.

"Is Atia going to be okay?" Artie asked, looking up at me worriedly.

"Uh… she should be," I replied.

"What about Switch?" she asked.

"Yeah, she should be fine, too," I said.

"Why did Kaito do that?" she asked.

"Because he's a crazy psychopath," I said, matter-of-factly. "But we still love him."

"But why doesn't he like Switch?" she asked me.

"I don't really know why." Honestly, I only had a vague idea. I know that at the School, Kaito did something. Something bad. Something _really_ bad. Switch found out, and that is why she doesn't like him. She wanted to make his life a living hell, like he had to her. So she would harass him every day after we escaped. She would pick on him, beat him up, and try to do as much damage as a small 16 year old could do to a strong 19 year old. Having powers really helped her, and she also knew Kaito's sore spots, his weaknesses, she knew what she had to do to get what she wanted done. But then one day, Kaito snapped. She'd pushed him too far. I don't know what she did, but I know that it really pissed Kaito off. He started to mess with her. He somehow knew more about her than she knew about him, and he used that information to his advantage. It's basically been just back and forth pain between them ever since. I don't know any more details other than what I just told you.

Then I heard Kaito yell from somewhere in the house. "Everyone! Meet in Kimu's room!"

I left the bathroom and was followed out by Artie. As I walked past Switch and Atia's room, Smosh walked out and closed the door behind him.

"How is she?" I asked.

He sighed. "Fine. Bloody. Asleep." He walked to Kimu's room and Artie followed him. I opened the door to Switch and Atia's room and walked in.

The room was dark, and the window was opened a crack to let fresh air in. Switch looked different, even peaceful, without a scowl on her face. There was a blood-soaked towel under her head. She was breathing steadily, but was definitely asleep. I walked out and closed the door after me.

When I got to Kimu's room, everyone else was there already. I walked in and sat down next to Smosh on Kimu's bed.

"So…," Kaito started slowly. "Does anyone have any ideas of where to go?"

Everyone was silent and just stared at each other. Atia looked like she was calculating something.

Then, Artie spoke up. "It's too quiet without Switch here. So I'm going to be her." She sat back in her seat, frowned, and let out a fake exasperated sigh.

Kaito snorted. Smosh and I smiled. The corners of Crevice's mouth curled up a bit. "Impersonations are not really your strong suit, Artie," Crevice said.

"Although, I have to admit, that's pretty much Switch in a nutshell," Kaito said.

Kimu rolled her eyes, and then smiled at Artie. "Artie, honey? You can be yourself, and Switch will miss out on this meeting."

"Aww…," Artie whined. "But it's so _quiet without_ her."

"I think we'll survive," I said.

Just then, Atia gasped.

"What?" I asked.

She started signing to Kimu (in sign language). After a minute of rapid signing, Kimu gasped, too. "Oh, my gosh!" she exclaimed. "That's perfect!"

"What?" I asked again.

"We should go to- wait for it- Hawaii!" Kimu said excitedly. **(Author's note: How I Met Your Mother reference! I love that show! Please review if you love it, too!) **Everyone looked at her, confused. "Let me elaborate," she said slowly.

"Please do," Smosh said.

"Atia says that there's an island just south of Hawaii. It's pretty small, and nobody lives there. Not that many people even know about it. It's perfect for us!"

Artie smiled. "Yay! We're going to Hawaii! We're going to Hawaii!" she chanted.

"Does anyone object?" Kaito asked.

Crevice shook his head. Smosh shrugged. I looked at Artie, who was dancing around the room and cheering about Hawaii, and I shook my head.

"That's it, then," Kaito said. "We're going to Hawaii." He got up and walked out of the room.

Kimu came over and flopped down on her bed, nearly squishing my long legs. Crevice left the room, too. I looked at Smosh, and he stood up and led the way down the hallway and into our room.

"How's Switch?" he asked me.

"She seems fine, although I wouldn't really know. How's Atia's wing? Did you check?" I asked.

"Her wing is already healing," he said happily.

I smiled. "Good. We'll be out of here in no time."


	4. Chapter 4

**POV: Crevice**

It had been a few days since the attack. At that moment, I sat next to Switch's bed. Her pillow was soaked in blood._ Oh, well_. Then she stirred and her eyes fluttered open. This was the first time she had been awake since the Eraser attack. She lifted her head and looked around the dimly lit room groggily.

"Where am I?" she asked slowly, rubbing the back of her head. "_Who_ am I? _Who_ are you?"

I stared in shock. Did she really lose her memory? What would we do without the real Switch? Life would never be the same without her. Would she know how to fly? How to fight? How to argue with Kaito? Do you think that she could see the worry and panic in my eyes? _Oh, god. I think I'm hyperventilating…_

Then she grinned at me weakly. "Relax, Crevice," she said, giggling quietly. "I'm just messing with you."

I guess she _could_ see the worry and panic in my eyes. I sighed with relief and frustration. "Not funny," I said. "Don't do that."

She smiled and sat up straight. "So," she started slowly, "how long was I out?"

"A few days," I answered.

"Did anything interesting happen?"

"Actually… we decided where to go."

"Oh?" she asked. "And where is that?"

"Hawaii. There is a small, uncharted island just south of Hawaii."

She nodded her head slowly, processing the information. Then after a few moments, she asked, "So, when do we leave?"

I shrugged and looked at her hands, which were tugging at the blanket by her side. "When Atia can fly and when you don't have a concussion, I guess," I said.

Switch nodded and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She placed her feet on the floor gently. She cringed and yanked her hand to the back of her head. She sat there with her eyes squeezed shut for a few seconds, holding her breath. A small whine escaped her clamped lips, and she sucked in a breath. Then she opened her eyes again, and started taking in shallow breaths. She calmed down and looked up at me.

"Holy crap. That hurt," she said.

I nodded. "I guess that's what happens when you get your head bashed into solid rock by a crazy person." I looked at her and realized that she was trying to stand up. "Umm...," I started unconfidently, "maybe you shouldn't try walking just yet."

She pulled herself up again. "Relax, dude. I have a concussion, not broken legs."

"I know," I said. "But maybe it's not safe to walk if you're too dizzy."

She snorted and stood all the way up. She took a wobbly step forward, and I rushed up to catch her if she fell, because I was almost sure she was going to. Then –get this- she _did_ fall. I knew it! But she fell onto me. I was knocked over and landed flat on my back, the air leaving my lungs in a quick _whoosh_. Switch landed on top of me and groaned.

"Graceful," I said sarcastically. I smirked at her as I said, "I told not to walk."

"Shut up," she said, rolling off of me. She flopped on her back and blew her hair out of her face. "I'm really dizzy."

"Yeah, I can tell," I said. I stood up and held out my hand to Switch. She took my hand in hers, and I helped her up. "Want to try again?" I asked her.

She nodded and took another step forward, towards the door. She wobbled and then fell to the ground again. Her knees slammed onto the carpeted floor heavily, and she let out another whimper. But she looked up at me again and pulled herself up. I knew she would try again; she's not the type of person to give up easily, especially if someone else is there watching her. She stood up and took another step forward, and I rushed up next to her. She leaned on me, holding my arm so tightly I thought it would lose circulation. I walked to the door, slowing my pace so that Switch could wobble alongside me.

"Where is everyone else?" she asked me.

Then we heard laughter coming from downstairs. We turned that direction and Switch groaned as she realized that she would have to get downstairs somehow. She rolled her eyes and sat down on the floor at the top of the steps. Then she scooted forward and slid down the stairs. **(Author's note: My sister does that all the time. She just slides down the stairs when she's too lazy to walk.)** When she got to the bottom, she curled up for a moment, holding the back of her head. I ran downstairs after her and she looked up at me.

"Ow," she said. "That hurt."

I looked at her pitifully. She stood up and walked to the kitchen, which we had cleaned up in the time that she'd been unconscious. I followed her in and saw Kaito, Tara, Smosh, and Kimu congregated around the kitchen table. As we walked in, Kaito looked at me and smirked.

"I told you I didn't kill her," he said to me.

I rolled my eyes and sat down next to Kimu. "So… what are you guys doing?" I asked no one in particular.

"Oh, we're just talking," came Tara's answer.

I nodded. Switch started towards the chair next to Kaito, but hesitated a few feet away. She glanced at Kaito and then the chair again.

Kaito rolled his eyes. "Relax, I won't do anything to you," he reassured her. She paused for a moment, probably considering the options. Then she sat down in the empty seat next to Kaito. Kaito snorted and Switch turned to him.

"What now?" she asked.

Kaito shrugged and smiled. "Oh, it's just that the back of your head is all cut up and bruised. It looks really weird."

Switch snarled. Tara picked up an orange off the table and chucked it at Kaito. It hit him straight in the face, and he whirled to face her.

"Knock it off, Kaito," Tara said, "or you'll get another, bigger fruit thrown at you." She gestured at the uncut watermelon on the counter a few feet away. I guess Kaito knew that it wasn't an empty threat, because he shut up and looked down at the table, holding the orange in his hands. Switch smirked at him, and Smosh smiled at Tara.

After a little while there in the kitchen, everybody went upstairs to pack their things. In Artie's and my room, Artie was asleep in her pile of pillows and blankets next to my bed. I was careful not to wake her up as I collected anything valuable, which wasn't a lot of things. There was a picture of all of us that the scientists took when Artie was about 3 years old, which Kimu had snagged the day we escaped from the lab; there was a binder full of papers that had as much information as there was about me that wasn't locked in computers at the School; there was a piece of the box they had kept me in at the lab. The box was made out of modified metal, because I could burn through the regular cages. Smosh had to smash it to get me out when we escaped the lab; there was a small pouch of money that had been sitting in my sock drawer, unused for the past few months we'd been in this house.

Everything was so dusty and it all looked untouched. I actually think it made it easier to pack up everything and leave; I was less attached to it all. After my important items, I moved onto my clothes, which were all just shoved into a small drawer beside my small bed. I threw everything into a small duffle bag. I took the bag and tossed it down the stairs. As I watched it tumble down the stairs, I heard Artie shift in her bed. I didn't turn to look at her, but I knew she was awake.

"Crevice?" she said quietly.

"Yeah," I answered without looking at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm packing. And I suggest you do the same: we're leaving as soon as we're sure that Atia can fly."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed, and I didn't dare look at her, because if she was crying or pouting or whatever, I knew I wouldn't be able to stand it. So I just walked out of the room, leaving Artie there by herself.

I walked down the hallway to the bathroom. I flicked on the light and grabbed my toothbrush. I didn't feel like going back to our room, because I was afraid that Artie would be to saddening to look at. So instead, I went to Switch and Atia's room. When I got there, Switch was sitting on the bed, looking at an old manila folder. It was stained with… I don't know what. She was just holding it in her hands, silver droplets dripping down her cheeks. Atia was brushing her hand along the dresser, and it collected a lot of dust. She blew it off of her hand and it floated around in the air.

"Hey," I said quietly.

Atia didn't look up at me, just smiled to herself. Switch, however, did look at me. She gave me a watery smile and held the folder out to me.

"What's that?" I asked her.

"Oh, it's just some files that Kimu gave me right after we came to this house," she said. "It has as much information that the scientists had about me. I've never looked over it, I'm just too nervous."

I nodded in understanding. I never looked through the binder in my bag, but I still kept it. I walked over to Atia and noticed what she was doing: drawing shapes in the dust. There was a picture of a girl –who I assumed was Atia- with short hair and wings. Then with her finger, Atia traced a box around the drawing. She put bars through the box, drawing a cage. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then slammed her hand down on the picture and brushed away the dust, leaving no sign that the caged, winged girl was ever there. Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them away.

_Aww, geez… This move is going to be harder than I thought._ I sat down next to Switch on the bed. She let her wings unfurl a little, and I put my hand on her knee. She gave me a wry smile and looked back at the folder.

"I hope we're making the right move, going to Hawaii," she said.

"We are," I reassured her. "Those horrible people will never find us again."


	5. Chapter 5

**POV: Smosh**

It had been only one day since we all packed. Atia's wing was healed completely, and Switch's head was fine, although she had occasional head pains at the back of her skull. Everything had been relatively peaceful: no attacks, no fights, no injuries, and no big problems.

Everything we needed or had packed was by the front door, shoved into a medium-sized suitcase. I was going to carry our stuff, and Kimu. But it was already 11 AM, and we had wasted precious time chatting with one another. Atia estimated a 13 hour flight from our little house north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and east of the Mississippi river, so we would need to stop for the night, no doubt.

"Okay, everyone," Tara called, her voice booming through the house. "Time to leave!" I felt a tap on my shoulder a moment later and turned around to see her standing there. She gave me a weak smile, and I smiled back, trying to look as reassuring as possible. She hugged me, wrapping her arms around my back. She buried her face in my shoulder, and I held her tightly, careful not to crush her with my strength.

Although she was tall and a great fighter, she was still very fragile, her limbs skinny and her hips and shoulders not very wide. She had my shirt bunched up in her hands, and I felt her warm breaths down my neck. Her hair smelled slightly fruity –peach maybe? - And for a moment, I wanted to hold her there forever. Right then, right there, before we had to leave that house and all of our memories that happened there. I knew she was really sad to be leaving, we all were. I just wanted to hold her there, to comfort her. Because if there was one thing I couldn't stand, it was to see Tara sad. But we were interrupted.

Switch came up behind us. I released Tara reluctantly and turned to Switch. She was frowning, not one of those frowns she gave when she was angry, but a different type of frown, the one she gave when she was thinking. Her lips were pursed and her eyebrows were drawn in a tight line across her forehead. At first, I thought she would've made some snarky comment about me and Tara hugging. But she just looked at me, frown on her face, gaze never wavering. If I had to chose something, one thing, about Switch that we all depended on, it would be how determined she was.

"Let's go, then," she said. Her voice was shaky, and I think she was trying to hide that, but Tara and I could tell that she was both sad and anxious. "The sooner we leave, the better."

Then Atia walked in. She tapped her wrist with her forefinger, as if she was wearing a watch. Then she gestured towards the front door. I nodded and followed her into the still furnished living room. Kaito sat in a chair, while Crevice was sitting next to Artie on the couch adjacent to Kaito's chair. Kimu was not in the room, I noticed.

"Everyone ready?" I asked.

Kaito nodded without saying anything.

Artie buried her face in her palms, but gave a quiet "Yes."

Crevice looked at Tara, Atia, me, and then settled on Switch's determined face. His lips parted as if he was going to say something, but then he clamped them back together and just nodded.

"Good," I said. "Kimu!"

I didn't know where she had been, only that a moment after I called her name, she came running down the stairs.

"We leaving?" she asked.

"Yes, we are," Tara said.

"Okay," she replied. "Are you guys sure we can't keep _any_ furniture?"

"No furniture," I said. "I can't carry it. I'm already carrying you, and even our luggage is a stretch. It'll be a miracle if my wings can hold up all of that weight. No furniture."

She nodded. Atia tapped her wrist again. We all acknowledged her. She headed to the door and pulled it open. She stepped outside and looked up at the clear blue sky. We all followed her out, taking one last, long, good look at the place that gave us shelter for so long. I stopped in the doorway, pulling the suitcase behind me. I cringed as all the memories we had at this house –good and bad- came back and whacked me in the face.

I remembered the time when we first moved in. The whole house was completely unfurnished, and we had slept on the floor for a week. I remembered the time that Kaito had locked Switch in the bathroom, and then the door got stuck, and I had to break it open. I remembered the time when Artie and Atia were playing hide-n-seek, and Atia just hid in a tree and wasn't found for hours. I remembered the time when Crevice nearly electrocuted himself when he tried to pull his toast from the toaster after just washing his hands. I remembered the time Tara got her hair stuck in a ceiling fan.

Like I said, good and bad memories… Emphasis on the word 'bad'.

I said good bye to that house and stepped outside. The air was brisk and the slight chill pierced through my shirt. I breathed in heavily and the cool air burned my lungs. Although we were leaving the house, I have to admit, I was excited that we were going to be flying to a new and exciting place.

I scooped up Kimu in my arms and jumped up. I unfurled my wings and flapped them hard, trying to keep up the weight of myself, Kimu, and all of our stuff. Everyone else did the same thing. Atia rushed up in front of us. She pointed left, and swerved that direction. We all followed her. As we rose up in the sky, I inhaled the thin air. I felt the air run through my hair, the sun on my back, the wind streaming through my feathers. I felt free.

We were flying above the clouds, to make it harder for people to see us if they were to look up. I was flying next to Tara, our wing motions synchronized. Her hair whipped behind her, and she turned her head slightly to smile at me. No matter how upset she had been earlier, I could tell she was glad to be flying. I smiled back at her. And then we heard screaming.

"Kaito!" Switch shrieked.

I whirled my head around to see Kaito flying directly above Switch. If she tried to fly forward or up any faster than she was, she would fly right into Kaito. On every upstroke that her wings made, the tips of her wings brushed against Kaito's on his down stroke. She dropped down a few feet, trying to get away from Kaito, but he dropped down also.

"Yes?" Kaito asked innocently.

"Stop that!" Switch yelled up at him.

"Stop what? Flying?" he asked with a smirk. _Smart-ass._

"You _know_ what! Stop flying _right above_ me!" Switch shouted.

"I was here first, maybe you should move," Kaito suggested.

"Fine!" she yelled back. Then she swerved to the right. So did Kaito. "_Stop it!_" she shrieked.

Kaito just snickered at her. Then Switch pushed her hand up into Kaito's abdomen. He doubled over –as much as he could in the air- and forgot to flap his wings for a second, and he fell down about 50 feet. Then he recovered and zoomed right back up. He crashed his body into Switch's, and she fell down into the clouds, shrieking as she did, her wings flapping awkwardly.

I couldn't go after her: my hands were full. I didn't know if she would fly back up, and after a second, Crevice swooped down and dive-bombed after her. Now, I don't know if you've ever flown into a cloud before, but for those of you who haven't, let me tell you: clouds are basically just floating masses of water. So don't be surprised when I tell you that when Crevice flew back up to us, Switch cradled in his arms, they were both soaking wet. Her wings were pressed against Crevice's chest, and the small muscles in Crevice's arms were straining to hold Switch up. She squirmed and he let go of her. Switch flipped in the air, unfurled her wings, and flew upwards. She glared at Kaito, her mouth closed tightly, as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. She and Crevice stayed further back than the rest of us, talking to each other.

I turned my focus down to Kimu. "What is the matter with Kaito? Do you know why he's always like this?" I asked her.

"I do know why, but Kaito made me promise not to tell anyone. If you're curious, just ask Switch. She knows."

I looked from Kimu to Tara. Tara looked at me and quirked her eyebrow. She moved her eyes towards the soaking wet Switch and Crevice for a second, then looked back at me and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. I snorted, and felt Kimu chuckle in my arms.

After another hour or so, we flew down into a forest. Atia said we were somewhere in south Illinois. We all landed with a thud on the grass-covered ground. I set Kimu down and she stretched out her legs.

"So… we have any food?" Artie asked to no one in particular. "I'm starving."

Atia reached into her drawstring bag and pulled out a Ziploc bag of granola bars. She took one out of the bag and then threw it to Artie. Then she held up the bag to the rest of us, offering us the granola bars. Switch raised a hand, and Atia pulled out another bar and threw it to her. I held out a hand, and Atia tossed me one, too. Crevice and Tara both held out their hands, and both caught the bar Atia through to them. We all sat down on the ground, eating and talking. We knew each other pretty well, so we didn't need to elaborate on many of the thoughts we shared with each other.

After a few minutes of break-time, we decided to keep flying. There were no problems, but soon the sun started to set. Atia led us to a small cabin in the woods. Kimu fidgeted in my arms, eager to be on solid ground again. I set her down, and we all looked at the cabin. All the lights were turned off, and it didn't look like anyone was home.

"Atia?" Tara asked. "Is anyone here?"

Atia shook her head and leaned towards one of the windows. She paused for a moment, holding her breath. I have no idea what she was doing, but it looked like she was straining to hear something from inside the house. After a moment, she walked around to the front of the house, and we all followed her. She bent down at the front door and picked up a key from under the doormat. She pushed the key into the lock on the front door. The door opened with ease and we all walked in. we all looked around, and even with the lights off, we could still see fine. I swept my eyes across the walls, and saw a calendar that said: 'We're coming home today!' written on next Sunday. So we had 3 days to stay here, if necessary.

"I'm tired," Artie said while yawning.

"Me too," added Switch.

Then Tara suggested that somebody take a look around the house. Kimu volunteered –I think she was just happy to be able to move again- and she ran upstairs. When she came back down, she described the rooms.

"There are 2 kids' bedrooms, each with one 2-person bed. The guest room also has a double. And there is a master bedroom. Also, we can sleep on the couch down here if we need to."

"I call guest room!" Switch cried before anyone could claim that room. "Atia can stay with me."

"Roof!" Kaito called.

"Tara and I'll get the master bedroom," I said.

"Artie and I will take one of the kids' rooms," Crevice said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Then I get the other kids room," said Kimu.

We all paused for a moment, just thinking. Thinking and resting for a minute. We were all exhausted, both physically and emotionally; we'd been through a lot in the past few days.

Then Switch spoke up. "Okay, I'm going upstairs now. Atia, when you come in, please be quiet." She rubbed her eyes and just stared off into space for a few seconds before heading upstairs.

"Me too," Artie said. She yawned and ran upstairs after Switch.

"Me three," Kimu added.

"Why are _you_ so tired?" Kaito challenged. "You didn't flap your wings all day."

"Yeah, well I still have the right to sleep," she snapped.

"Okay, fine," Kaito said defensively. "I'll be on the roof." He opened the front door and stepped outside. Then he jumped up and landed with a _thud_ on the roof.

"Smosh," Tara said to me, "I'm going upstairs. You coming?"

I had nothing better to do, and I was really tired. "Uh… Yeah," I said. "Let's go." I led the way upstairs and to the master bedroom. The floorboards squeaked under our feet as we walked down the hallway. When we got to the room, Tara and I pulled our shoes off and crawled into bed. As soon as I lay down, I fell asleep, despite the uneasy feeling I felt wrenching its way through my gut. What I was uneasy about, I knew not.


	6. Chapter 6

**POV: Kaito**

I woke up to a drop of rain landing right on my forehead. I looked around slowly, then shot straight up when I didn't recognize where I was._ Where the hell am I?_ I thought. Then I remembered. _Oh, right. The cabin. Right…_ I jumped down from the roof and stretched out my wings. I looked up at the sky, which was dark and cloudy. I pulled open the door quietly and slid inside. Then I heard voices coming from the dining room.

"Atia wants to know if you have any 7s," I heard Kimu say. That meant both Kimu and Atia were up.

"Go fish," said Smosh quietly. Smosh was up, too.

"My turn?" Artie asked a bit too loudly for 7:30 in the morning.

"Yeah, It's your turn," Smosh said.

I snuck up the stairs and crept down the hallway, which was painted in a pale yellow color. Then I went into the master bedroom. Tara was asleep. The floor creaked underneath my feet, and she stirred.

"What?" she mumbled, looking around the room.

I held my breath and stood stock-still.

Now, you're probably thinking: 'Kaito, you're not invisible; she's looking right at you! Tara's going to be pissed if you don't turn invisible, like, right now!' But the thing is, with Tara, until she fully wakes up, she can't see anything that's not moving. Isn't it awesome? Like a T-Rex!

So Tara groaned and rolled over, without even knowing I was there. I snuck out the door and crept down the hall. I reached one of the kids' rooms. I peered inside and saw Crevice asleep in a bed, his dark bangs draped over his eyes. He was lying so still, I was afraid he was dead. But then I saw the slow but steady rise and fall of his chest underneath the covers. I closed the door and continued with my little stroll down the hall. I reached the guest room.

Switch was asleep, and her arm hung over the side of the bed. Her wings were extended slightly, and the tips brushed against the wall. I crept over to her, and reached for her wings. I plucked one of her downy feathers, and she flinched a little. I took the feather and brushed it along her arm. She pulled her arm back under the covers. Then I ran the feather down her neck. She tensed and brought her hand up to swat the feather away.

Since she wasn't waking up, I brushed the feather down her cheek. She lifted her hand and tried to swat the feather away. I pulled it away quickly and waited for her to put her hand back down. Then I reached for her wrist with my other hand and held it down. I dragged the feather around her nostrils, and her nose twitched. I did it more, and she thrashed her head around, trying to pull away.

Then her eyes flashed open. I backed away and turned invisible, because Switch _isn't_ like a T-Rex when she wakes up. She rubbed her nose and looked around, confused. I sucked in a breath as her gaze turned to me, even though she couldn't see me. I could tell that she knew I was there. Her eyes stayed locked on me as she reached for a pillow next to her. She threw it at me, and it knocked me into the wall. She leaped out of bed and ran up to me, even though I was still invisible. Her hand shot out from her side and she reached for whatever she could find, which was my T-shirt. She pulled me forward and kneed me in the gut. I forgot to stay invisible because of the pain in my abdomen, even though invisibility wouldn't have been much help anyways.

"Kaito!" she yelled as I leaned over in pain. "What the hell are you doing in here while I'm trying to sleep?!"

I looked up at her and grinned through the pain. She slammed her elbow on my back and then kneed my stomach again. She kicked my shin and then pushed me out the door. She shoved me into the wall, and my head smacked against the pale paint. She grabbed the first thing she could reach off the dresser, which was a small, purple lamp, and threw it at me. It hit me in my chest and then crashed to the floor, and then she slammed the door shut. I clutched my stomach and groaned as I pulled myself up.

_Fine,_ I thought. _You hurt me, I'll hurt you back._ I walked back to Crevice's room to make sure he was still asleep, because if Switch had woke him up by slamming the door, he would've been so pissed. He was asleep, fortunately. Then I had a brilliant idea.

I walked to the bathroom and rummaged around in the cabinet. Then I found what I was looking for. I came out with one of those spray bottles, you know, like with the fruity, girly smelling aerosol mist in it. I smiled to myself. Did Switch really expect me to not do anything about the pain in my gut and spine? Who did she think I was? Artie?

I walked back to the guest room with the bottle in my hands. I pushed the door open as quietly as possible, only to see that Switch was already asleep again. She was snoring lightly, and her back was towards me. _Perfect_. I pressed down on the button thingy so that mist would come out, and then jammed it so that it would be stuck in that position. I threw it under Switch's bed and ran out, closing the door behind me. Fortunately for me, there was a lock on my side of the door. I don't know why somebody would put it on the_ outside_ of the door, but since the owners of this cabin did, I used it to my advantage. I locked Switch in.

I walked downstairs and saw everyone down there staring at me.

"What's going on upstairs?" Kimu asked suspiciously.

I answered quickly without really thinking. "Nothing…"

I sat down at the table where everyone was still playing Go Fish. After a few minutes, Tara came downstairs.

"Do you guys smell that? It's kind of sweet and sugary," she said. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy, while I tried my hardest to look innocent.

"Tara, what are you talking about?" Smosh asked. "There's nothing"-

"No, wait!" Artie cried. "I smell it, too. Mmm… Smells good."

We all just shrugged it off, to my relief. Except Atia kept staring at me with a disapproving look. She knew.

Then we heard screams from upstairs. I smiled to myself as everyone looked up from their game. We heard another scream and then choking sounds. Everyone ran upstairs to see what was happening.

"Kaito!" Switch shouted from inside the guest room. Her voice was hoarse and she was banging on the door. "Kaito! Kaito, you let me out _right now!_"

"Nope!" I called through the door. Everyone just looked at me like I was crazy.

"Please!" she whined. "I can't breathe! Ugh… what is this? Please…" She burst into a fit of coughing, and I had to hold back a smile. "Kaito… Let… Me… Out… Now..!" she managed in between coughs. Then we heard a _thud_, and the room was silent.

I heard quick but quiet footsteps coming from down the hall, and I knew it was Crevice. The only problem with this whole lock-Switch-in-the-room-with-any-form-of-gas thing is that if Switch doesn't kill me soon afterwards, then Crevice will.

He was really protective, mostly of those who were weaker than the rest of us. Switch, for example, had a serious disadvantage against most of us because of her size. Artie was significantly smaller than the rest of us, and much weaker. And don't tell her or Crevice that I said this, but –she wasn't too bright either. Atia, Crevice wasn't as protective of, because she had Kimu. Kimu and Atia seemed to have a closer relationship than the rest of us had with each other, although Tara and Smosh were awfully close.

So Crevice came up behind us and shoved us all out of the way. I think he flashed me a glare for a moment, but if he did, it was too fast for me to be sure. He reached the door and unlocked it. I don't know why nobody else did before, but I may have an idea why, because the second he pushed the door open, the smell of the spray became about 10 times stronger. I choked at the scent, and Tara yanked her hand up to her nose to cover it. Kimu backed away, cringing at the smell, and nearly toppled down the stairs until Smosh caught her arm and pulled her back up. Artie fled downstairs and opened the door for some fresh air. Atia followed her down and stepped outside, despite the light rain. Crevice sucked in a breath and ran into the guest room. He came back out a minute later with Switch slung over his shoulder. He slammed the door shut behind him. Crevice set her down, and she scowled at me.

Her nose was bright pink, which was hilarious, and her eyes were watery. She opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a quiet, squeaky, whimpery sound. She cleared her throat and tried again, but it was no use. She looked even angrier at that.

Then I felt a sharp pain in the back of my knee and I fell to the ground, even though neither Switch nor Crevice moved. I whirled my head around the next thing I saw was Tara's fist heading straight for my face. I moved as quickly as possible to the side, but her hand was moving faster than I was, and her knuckles bashed against my cheekbone. I ended up on my back and Tara tried to jump on me. But Smosh stepped in her way and blocked her from me.

"What the hell?" he said, surprisingly calm and eerily quiet. "I mean, I know you like to mess with people, and have a knack for it if that person is Switch, but really, why would you do that?"

"In my defense," I started, "she kneed my stomach earlier."

Kimu snorted. "Not nearly a good enough reason."

"And she elbowed me in my back," I added. "And pushed me into a wall. And threw a lamp at me."

Switch glared at me, and if looks could kill, I'd have been dead 50 times over. I thought she would say something, do something –anything- but instead she looked at me. Then she stepped forward, pushed everyone aside, and ran downstairs and out the front door. Crevice followed her, and Tara followed right after him.

"You're not getting away with this so easily," Tara warned, stepping outside. "We'll think of something to do to you."

I stood there for a moment, worrying about all the things they could do to me, and the list was endless.

Don't judge me, she deserved it. You should've seen the stuff she did to me right after we escaped. She hit me, threw stuff at me, she did stuff to me while I slept. And why? All because I was defending myself at the School. I did what I had to do for myself, and Switch didn't accept that. She couldn't understand that humans are selfish and would rather help themselves rather than others, even those who are only 98% human. So she thought I deserved crap like that. And one day, I decided "you know what? I'm not gonna stand for this anymore." And I fought back. It was rather easy, actually. She's, like, half my size. And I could always sneak up on her. But she was so damn feisty, and didn't give up. She kept bugging me, so I did the same to her.

In the past year, though –I have to admit- Switch had gotten better at it, she's more advanced. Plus the fact that she and Tara were "besties", as Artie said, and Tara was always standing up for her; and Crevice was so totally in love with her. Actually, I don't really know if that's true, but it sure looked it. He acted different around her. And he always defended her, and got really pissed at me when I messed with her. Figures.

Like I said, the list of what the 3 of them could do was endless. But no worries, nothing could ever be as terrible as what they did to me at the School. Nothing.


	7. Chapter 7

**POV: Artie**

After that, we looked for the fishies in our deck of cards that Kimu brought. I got the most fishies, and I lost the game. I got up from our game of Go Fish and walked into the kitchen. Tara and Crevice were talking quietly at the table. When I walked in, they stopped talking and looked up at me. Then they both shrugged and turned back towards each other. Despite my super-awesome hearing, I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Switch was asleep on the long, brown couch in the living room, a quilt covering her torso.

I walked over to the table and sat down next to Crevice. They both stopped talking to look at me. I smiled eagerly at Crevice, hoping he would include me in their conversation. But all he did was stroke my hair. My smile faltered as he turned back to Tara.

"What are you talking about?" I asked when nobody would talk to me.

Tara and Crevice exchanged glances.

"Sweetie," Crevice said to me, "some things are meant to be private."

I looked at him blankly.

"I mean," he continued, "sometimes people need time alone. Just to talk. By themselves. Do you understand?"

I shook my head, not understanding what he was getting at. All I wanted to do was talk to my family.

"He means 'get out,' but he just likes you too much to say it straight to your face," Tara snapped.

Crevice rolled his eyes, obviously annoyed. "So much for being nice about it."

"Oh," I said, looking down at my mocha colored hands. Why didn't they want to talk to me? Crevice was one of the only people who actually liked me. I mean, we all liked each other -we were all we had- but Crevice liked me better than anyone else did. So I didn't understand why he didn't want to talk to me.

As I was heading back to the room where the others were playing cards, I heard Crevice and Tara pull the chairs out from under the table. Then Atia got up from the card table and went towards the kitchen. Kimu followed her. As they both brushed past me, I stopped Kimu.

"Kimu," I started.

"Yeah, honey?" Kimu said, looking down at me.

"Um… Tara and Crevice wouldn't talk to me, and Tara got mad when I tried talking to them. So… be careful."

"Thanks, Artie," she said, trying to move past me.

"And also," I continued, "Switch is on the couch. She asleep, so be quiet in there."

"Okay," Kimu said. As she walked into the kitchen, she said, "Hey guys. What'cha talking about?"

"None of your business," Tara snapped at her. In case you didn't know, Tara gets into a bad mood if you wake her up. Kaito did that that morning. Indirectly, of course. He was trying to irritate Switch with that fruity smelling spray, but that woke up Tara, too.

"Jeez, I was just asking a simple question," Kimu said defensively. "Don't forget that you shouldn't snap at me. I'm the one who got you out, and I can damn well put you right back in."

Crevice's gaze shot right up at her, and he stiffened. Tara knew it was an empty threat, but she shut up nonetheless.

"I told you they wouldn't talk to you, the same way they wouldn't talk to me!" I said to Kimu.

"I know, sweetie. I heard you the first time," Kimu said.

"But you asked anyways?!" I cried. "Why? Do you not trust me? Do you think I'm a liar?!" I was starting to get excited, and not in a good way. Why did everybody treat me like a child? Okay, granted, I was a child, but still!

"It's not that I don't trust you, Artie," Kimu replied softly. Her dark brown eyes were looking down at me and she brushed a long strand of black hair out of her face. "It's just that you're a little… unreliable."

"Unreliable?! What in the world are you talking about?! When have I ever been unreliable?! I want examples! Give me examples of how I'm"-

Crevice rushed up to me and clamped his hand over my mouth. "Shut up!" he hissed. "You'll wake up Switch!" He gestured to Switch, who shifted in her spot -still asleep- and turned so that her wings hung over the side of the couch.

Her wings were milk chocolate, with flecks of vanilla and caramel mixed in. Whenever I looked at them, I got the taste of sugar in my mouth. They looked much like Kaito's, whose were double-fudge brownie flavored ice cream with some caramel stirred in. I was unique; my wings didn't look like anybody else's. They were just caramel, no chocolate, no cream, and no vanilla. I liked the way they looked.

I stuck my tongue out, licking the palm of Crevice's hand. It took a second for him to realize what I was doing, but when he did, he backed away faster than bird-kids from Erasers. His face contorted in disgust, or as much his face ever contorts.

"Blech!" he said in surprise. He wiped his hands on his dirty jeans –the ones he wore the day before- and frowned at me, the corners of his mouth turned down a tad. I smiled up at him, letting my teeth show. "Don't lick my hands, Artie. Ever. Really. Just… don't."

"What's this about licking people?"

We all turned around to see Kaito and Smosh standing in the doorway. Smosh brushed past Kaito and stood behind Tara. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she smiled up at him. _Jeez… get a room, you two._

"Oh, Crevice is just trying to get Artie not to lick his hands," Kimu explained.

"Why was she licking his hand?" Kaito asked. "I mean, biting I understand, but licking? What does that accomplish?" He ran a hand through his sun-kissed hair and walked over next to me. He flicked the back of my head, but then rubbed my back, in between where my wings met my back. I closed my eyes and relaxed a little.

I don't know why Switch was so mean to him, he could be really nice. If only she saw that. If only everyone saw a lot of things. The only person who watched like me is Atia, who was standing in the corner of the room. She's quiet, and noticed what others didn't. Everyone else was just talk, talk, talk. Not unlike me though; everyone complained that I talked too much. But they would exclude me from teenage activities, and I would sit out and watch. That's how I know that if you pull on Switch's ears while she is morphed like someone else, she changes back to her own appearance. That's how I know that it takes exactly 2.83 seconds for Tara's claws to rip through human flesh. That's how I know that Smosh can lift 749 pounds. That's how I know that it takes a lot of effort for Kaito to stay invisible, especially if he's moving. That's how I know that Crevice hates small, tight spaces more than he hates the scientists who put him in one. That's how I know a lot of things. Too bad Atia can't tell me about anything. Too bad she can't talk. Did nobody tell you?

At the School, the scientists cut out her tongue. They didn't know the extent of her power, so they asked her. She refused to tell them, and they cut out her tongue. If you ask me, that was a really dumb move on their part. It's like "You won't tell us? Fine, we'll make it so you _can't_ tell us." They were just being anti-productive. So the doctors at the School assigned Kimu as her translator. Kimu taught Atia sign language and they talked a lot. Well… obviously _Atia_ didn't talk, but Kimu did. At first, Atia was reluctant –as any one of us would have been- but she soon gave in and would talk to Kimu. Kimu took a liking to her right away. She would come talk to her almost every day. Atia introduced her to the rest of the flock, and Kimu talked to us, too. It turns out that Kimu disliked the scientists almost as much as we did. Apparently they didn't like her because she was the most rebellious Eraser there and they were afraid she would influence the others to fight back. They tried to punish her by sending her to Atia, but it didn't work. After a couple years, she decided it was time to break out. She helped us escape and we took her with us. No matter what she says, though, I still don't trust her completely.

Kaito looked over at Switch asleep on the couch and nodded at her. "She sleeping?" he asked.

"Yes," Tara said. "But if you touch her, you die. I'm not even joking."

Kaito bit his lip and looked from Tara to Switch and back to Tara, who stared menacingly at him. Then he nodded to himself and sat down next to me. Everyone sat in silence for a couple minutes. Then Kimu said-

"We need to leave soon. This isn't our house."

"When do we leave?" Smosh asked.

"I don't know. Whenever, I guess," said Kimu.

"If we leave now, does that mean I can wake up Switch?" Kaito asked hopefully.

After a moment of consideration, everyone nodded. Tara's green eyes glinted with something; perhaps worry, as she looked at Switch. Kaito walked over to Switch on the couch. He stepped around her, being careful not to step on her wings that were draped over the side of the couch, and reached for a pillow. He pulled up the pillow and held it above his head. I looked at everyone around the table. Nobody looked too interested, but Crevice was glaring at Kaito, his law jutting out as he fought the urge to protest. Kaito swung the pillow down on her head and she bolted up.

"Now what?" she asked angrily.

"We're leaving. Get up," Kaito said.

She rolled her eyes and sat up. She straightened her turquoise t-shirt and pulled herself off the couch.

"Okay. Let's go then," she said impatiently.

We all shuffled out of the house quickly and quietly, and Smosh grabbed the suitcase from next to the table and started dragging our stuff behind him. Kimu jumped into his arms and we all unfurled our wings. As we flew, I couldn't help but feel overjoyed about going to Hawaii. I mean, we'd have been on vacation forever! If we were on that island, no one would be able to find us ever again. We would be safe and we would never have to go back to that scary School ever again. Life would be perfect.

Atia led us to islands after a while, and the sun glowed crimson red off her dark hair. We stopped at a small island. It had a volcano on it, and a lot of trees. As we flew down, I was so excited. I'd never seen anything so beautiful. The color of the water was a mix of dark blue and green. The sun was starting to set, so we flew down and made camp in the trees for the night. Crevice flew to a thick branch in a tree, and Switch snuggled up next to him, taking the spot I was going to take. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she rested her head on his. 2 birds, 1 nest.

I took a small branch and curled up, listening to everyone else's conversation before drifting off to sleep in the warm air.


	8. Chapter 8

**POV: Crevice**

_I bolt straight up when I smell that awful, sanitary scent, only to hit my head on the top of my box. I can't be here. Not again. I start to panic; I don't know how I ended back here. Then I realize it's just a dream. I know what dream this is. One of my worst. I look around the room, or as much as I can look while being stuck in this metallic box. Through the window, I see Switch in the corner of the room, her eyes dark and sad to look at. Next to her is Tara. She is lying on her back, her long legs sticking straight up against the wall of her cage. She is playing with her hair; I think she is braiding it. Smosh is next to her, sitting cross-legged in the corner of his cage. I see Artie in the corner of her cage across from them. She is crying to herself. I cannot see anyone else, but I can hear voices. They do not belong to any members of the flock. I try to move, even a tiny bit, but I'm restrained in this box. Then I'm being dragged backwards. Switch looks at me, eyes wide with worry, through the bars of her cage. Artie screams something, although I don't know what it is that she is screaming. But apparently it's loud and disruptive enough for and Eraser to come over and bang on her cage. She stays quiet after that. I look at Tara and she cringes as one of the scientists shouts towards her. Smosh looks up angrily at the doctors dragging my box then reaches his hand through the bars of his cage and takes Tara's hand. He nods slightly, telling me that it's alright, that I can stay strong. But I'm not as strong as he is, mentally or physically._

_ I know what they're going to do to me, and it's worse than you think. They've done it to Tara, Kaito, and Atia. It's awful. Let me explain before they actually start the process. So basically, they torture the members of the flock and see how much of an effect it has on the subject. I can't imagine this. Well, actually, I can. I've had this nightmare before. And, worse than that, it's also a flashback, a memory. This has actually happened to me, a few years ago, when I was 13 or so. They pull me into a bright white, sterile room and I hear muffled voices. Then its silent for a minute and someone opens my box. I sit up straight away and whirl around. I jump out of the box and lunge at the Whitecoat who opened my box. He is average height and has round glasses. I recognize him right away, he's Jeb Batchelder. I wrestle him to the ground but very quickly, Erasers come in and pry me off of him. There are 3 of them, all wolfed out, and they yank me back and throw me into a wall. The air is knocked out of my lungs in a _whoosh_. Jeb straightens his jacket and his glasses and looks at me as the Erasers hold me pressed against the wall, nearly crushing my wings. Jeb attaches a small chip to my wrist._

"_We will begin the study in a few moments," he says. "Clear out."_

_He walks out the one door in the room, followed by the Erasers. They close the door behind them. I pull at the thing on my wrist but it doesn't come off. I rush across the room but when I reach the door, it's locked. So I give up and just stretch out my wings. It's been a while since I've been out of my box. I walk around the room and flutter my dark wings a bit, enjoying the feel of the cramps and knots working themselves out of my muscles. I walk around for a bit and they send Switch in. She's struggling against several Erasers but when she sees me, she lets them set her down and she rushes over to me. She hugs me. Now, this is a bit before either one of us hit our teenage growth spurt, so she and I are about the same height, me being only an inch or two taller. She wraps her arms around my neck and I wrap mine around her lower back. We hold each other for a few moments, and then she lets go. When I see her face again, she's smiling one of those genuine smiles I rarely see._

"_Jeez," she says quietly. "You've grown since the last time I saw you out."_

_My mouth quirks a little. "You too," I say. The thing on my wrist beeps as my heartbeat quickens and I can feel my cheeks heating up._

"_I'm sorry," she says. She avoids my eyes as she looks around the blank room. I know what she's talking about. I'm sorry, too. "I mean… It's just…" She sighs as tears fill her eyes. "I'm sorry."_

_I nod. "It's fine. It'll be over quickly." I look down at her hand, and notice she has a chip implanted on her wrist. Her chip is beeping pretty steadily._

_She nods. Her blue eyes look into mine, and the wrist thing beeps more rapidly. I try to keep my breaths steady, my heartbeat normal, to keep the Whitecoats from being able to chart my reactions. At that moment an Eraser comes in and hoists her up. She kicks at the Eraser, and I can tell it's a girl. It's also an Eraser that I don't recognize but I know that I know her out of my dream. I know that in real life, she is a very important Eraser. She's Kimu. Switch screams and scratches and bites and hits and throws punches at Kimu. Kimu struggles against her, but she's stronger than Switch and soon takes control of the fight. I'm about to help Switch, but as I step forward, an electric shock pulses through my veins, and I fall to the floor. The pain is worst at my wrist were that chip is attached. I grit my teeth and look up at Switch._

_She is no longer fighting Kimu. Instead, she is hunched over and she is clutching her wrist. The chip on her wrist is making one long, high-pitched drone, much like the one mine is making. Then her note gets higher-pitched, and she cries out. I rush forward, but my chip makes a higher-pitched noise and I fall on the floor again and curl up. But that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that Switch is in pain. I crawl over to her, but the chip sends more electric currents through my body. I shout. I hear Switch shouting. Then suddenly, my chip quiets. I still see Switch on the ground, curled up in agony. I shut my eyes, but that only seems to amplify the volume of her wails. I can't take it anymore._

"_You bastards!" I yell. I know that the Whitecoats are listening. "Stop! Stop, please! Can't you see? You're hurting her!"_

_Then her chip silences. Her screams quiet, and she stays there, on the ground, shaking. I run over and take her in my arms. She looks up at me, and her eyes are filled with tears. I help her up and she shudders. She chokes back a sob and leans on me. I look at Kimu, who is standing in the corner of the room. She has a look of pure disbelief on her face. When she's not wolfed out, she looks kinda cute. But that cuteness is hidden by her look of fear and shock._

"_W-w-why would they do that?" she stutters._

"_Listen," Switch spits, voice wavering just a bit, "I know you are a new version of Eraser and everything, and you really haven't been here all that long, but this is what they do to the successful experiments. They torture them. You'll see."_

_Kimu turns to look at all of the bare walls of the white room. She walks up to the door and pounds on it._

"_Let us out, you jerks!"_

_The door opens and an arm reaches out and pulls her through. She lets out a little yelp, but then we can't see her anymore. Switch and I stand there. If they continue to do this testing, we should all just protest. Never participate, never cooperate. I know that Kimu just realized this. I saw the thought in her eyes. She's going to rebel, I can tell._

_Then Erasers come and grab Switch's arms. She kicks and yanks her arms away, but one of them grabs her hair and pulls her backwards. She whimpers and kicks some more. Then another grabs her shoulder and digs his claws in. She cries out as blood stains her scrappy lab shirt. I rush forward but the Erasers pull her out and then the door slams in my face._

"_No!" I shout. "No!"_

* * *

I jolted awake. I looked around and then I realized where I was: the forest on our island. I was still on the piece of ground I fell asleep on, and Switch was sitting cross-legged next to me. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with worry.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She sounded panicked and stressed. "You were screaming in your sleep. You're drenched in sweat. What were you dreaming about?"

I breathed slowly, trying to calm down, and sat up. "Oh, you know, our family at the School, stuff like that. But it's usual, it's okay." I tried to stay casual, but Switch knew me better than that. She frowned at me, her eyebrows drawn together.

"No, this is different. Usually, you wake up right away and go back to sleep, and everything is fine. This time, you kept sleeping and you were screaming –at Jeb Batchelder?-and panicking and kicking and everything."

I looked up from our spot on the ground at Kimu, who was practicing her fighting skills. I looked at our house. Yes, I said 'house', and no, I'm not picking up the story where Artie left off. I am telling from where we are still sleeping outside because we have no furniture but our house was finished being built the day before. So I looked at our newly built house. The roof was slanted downwards only one way, and the house was 2 stories tall, and pretty wide. It was made out of wood that Tara had cut down, and Smosh had honestly done most of the work with the whole building process, although the rest of us designed it. The windows were taken from other houses on other islands. I had felt bad about taking them at first, but then I realized that they have money and can get new windows, and we can't. The floor boards were smoothed with a wood sander that we "bought" at a hardware store the other day. We still needed to get furniture, but I didn't know where we would get it from.

"Crevice? Are you alright?" I turned and realized I had forgotten about Switch.

I ran a hand through my dark hair and sighed. "Fine. I'm fine."

Switch nodded at me, although she looked unconfident. She patted my shoulder and stood up. As she walked away, Tara ran up to me, her long, red hair streaming behind her.

"Nasty dream, huh?" she asked. I gave the slightest bit of a nod, and she shrugged. "Not much you can do about that. Kimu said she's gonna find some furniture later today. We can stay here and get used to the house while she does that. Or you can go with her. But I'm going to stay here."

"You know where she's going?" I asked.

"Nope. I have no clue. But I know she's going to be going out in public, so maybe you might wanna pass on going with her."

I nodded and we were quiet for a minute.

"I'm gonna go now," I said. I pulled myself up and brushed off my jacket. I stretched out my wings a tiny bit and relaxed for the first time in days. I had been on edge since the Eraser attack. If they had found us the first time, only a couple months after we escaped, then who's to say that they wouldn't be able to find us again? I was freaking out. I mean _freaking out_. I'd had only nightmares since then, mostly involving Erasers finding us and taking us back to the School. And if I wasn't having waking nightmares, then I was jumpy as all hell. I couldn't spend 30 seconds without looking around to make sure nobody was there. But I tried to calm down and relax. I let the sunlight warm my dark wings and closed my eyes.

Then I felt something drag up my arm, and I froze. It felt a little sharp, and small, much like a claw. I whirled around and swung at whatever was touching me; I was so ready for a fight and I was so ready to leave this place, I was so on edge. Artie ducked as my fist swung over her head. She had a stick in one hand, and she smiled at me.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "You actually thought this was a claw? Classic Crevice!" She ran away, cackling like a hyena, throwing the stick at a tree on the way passed it.

I ran a hand through my hair and headed to the front door of our house. Fortunately, we had painted the house already, so our house wasn't completely dull. The front door was a dark brown color. As I opened it, it creaked. The inside of the house smelled like wood and paint, and it made me feel a little dizzy. We would need to air out the house for a while to get those fumes out. I walked down the hall to the kitchen. It wasn't much of a sight, what with the bare walls and empty floors. But it was a bigger space than our old kitchen. After a few minutes of exploring our new house, people started to walk in, and by people, I mean my flock.

"Okay," Kimu started, "we need to find furniture. Smosh, you need to come with me to help lift furniture and stuff."

Smosh rolled his eyes.

"Oh, cry me a river, build yourself a bridge, and get over it," Kimu snapped. "I have to go, too."

Smosh shrugged, as if to say 'fine, you win, I'll come with you'.

Everyone was silent for a minute.

Then Kimu spoke. "Well, if we're leaving, let's leave now."

They walked out of the door, leaving the rest of us alone, and leaving me more on edge than ever, now that 2 of our best fighters were gone.


	9. Chapter 9

**POV: Kimu**

As Smosh set me down behind some trees, he tucked his wings in. He pulled his gray hoodie over his back, even though it was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I looked at him.

"Ready? For being in public?" I asked him.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he said grumpily. He pushed passed me and walked through the brambles that separated us from the public eye.

As we stepped out, the sun shined in my eyes. We were right by a park, one filled with kids and adults and babies and dogs and birds and all kind of activity. Smosh instinctively shied away, trying to blend in to the background. But I pushed him forward, urging him to just get passed the people and keep moving. He didn't budge. Then I gave up and listened to him groan as I walked forward, leaving him to decide between walk around with me or stay there by himself. I kept my head down and my steps brisk, hoping not to attract any attention. After a minute, I heard Smosh's steady footsteps behind me, knowing he wouldn't have stayed there without me, or dared to leave me alone on this island with no means of transportation other than my feet. I didn't look back at him, but heard him groan as we walked out onto the crowded street.

"Do you actually know where we are going?" he asked.

"Nope." I turned to him and squinted as I looked up at his back-lit silhouette. We were standing in the middle of the road, and cars were stopping and honking at us.

"Get out of the road!" some guy yelled from his car. I flipped him off.

"Where should we start?" I asked.

"Maybe we should start on the sidewalk," Smosh said urgently.

I shrugged. Why couldn't we stand here? It's a free country.

"Kimu?" he said, looking over my shoulder.

I waved him off, thinking to myself.

"Kimu, look out!"

I whipped around to see a car speeding towards us. I froze. A red Lexus came bolting down the road, and it was only several meters away. Smosh acted very quickly, he stepped in between me and the Lexus, wrapping his arms around me like a shield. He crouched down and blocked the car from me. The Lexus hit him without slowing down, with a powerful force. He cringed, and I felt his grip tighten as the driver rushed out of the car. I was surprised at how little he moved after being hit by the car. He stayed stiff and I felt like I was encased in rock. Smosh let go of me and I crawled out from under him. He lay on the ground, curled up.

"Smosh!" I shrieked.

I helped him up, and he yanked his head up to look at me.

"What are you doing?! You can't just stand in the middle of the road!"

"I-I'm sorry. I was just being stupid," I stuttered.

"Damn right you were! You nearly got yourself killed!"

I was stunned. The last time I heard Smosh shout like this was when Tara, Smosh, and I all went out to do our bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) grocery shopping back at our old house and had left the rest of the guys at home. It was snowing, so we went to the nearest grocery store and back as fast as possible. But when we got back, Switch, Atia, and Artie were locked out of the house, dressed in their pajamas, and soaking wet. They had explained that Kaito had pushed them into the pond, which had been frozen over with a thin, but obviously breakable layer of ice, and then locked them out because they were really irritating him. They even admitted to doing stuff to him that would annoy him while we were gone. And where was Crevice, you might ask. He was being held in a headlock, wrapped in Kaito's arms, his hands pinned behind his back so that he couldn't burn anything. We really should've known that Crevice wouldn't stand a chance against Kaito. Smosh had been so angry, mostly at Kaito, but also at the rest of them, because for the next 2 weeks or so, the 3 girls were sick from being outside in the snow for -who knows how long? - dressed in nothing but their soaking wet pajamas. He was mad at Kaito, for leaving them out there, he was mad at the girls, because they should've known better than to do stuff to him, especially while we weren't there, and he was mad at Crevice for not doing anything about it. Crevice wanted to tell Smosh that there really was nothing he could've done against Kaito, but didn't think it would be appropriate to interrupt Smosh. And that's when we decided that one of the older members had to stay home at all times when we had people that tended not to get along with each other there. And no, even though Kaito is roughly the same age as Tara, he does not count as an 'older member', much to his dismay. You can see why, right?

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" I trailed off, noticing that a crowd was starting to gather.

Then the driver finally worked his way over to us. He was a short man, shorter than Smosh. He had thin, brown hair and had round glasses. He had on a dark green colored shirt that didn't compliment his skin tone.

"What the hell are you kids doing, standing in the middle of the road?!" he shouted.

Smosh must've noticed the crowd gathering around us, because he stiffened, shoved his hands in his pockets, and looked down, suddenly very interested in his untied shoelaces.

"We were just leaving," he mumbled.

"Look what you did to my car!" The man's face was turning bright red with anger as he gestured to the car. It had a Smosh-sized dent right in between the front headlights.

"Lay off, man!" I exclaimed. "We didn't mean to get run over by a car! You should be the one apologizing, you could've killed us!"

The man's face was as red as his car. "You…! I could've…?!" he stuttered angrily. "You nearly destroyed my car! It's not my fault you idiots were just standing there! It's not like you have superpowers!" If only he knew. "People don't just stand in the road, get hit by a car, and live!" Really, they don't? Because we just did. "You should know better." Should we? We were raised in a lab; do you really think that we have street smarts? "Speaking of which, how did you survive? I was going a steady 40 miles an hour."

I looked over at Smosh, who was glancing nervously at the cluster of people murmuring to each other. He just shook his head and shrugged, still looking at the crowd. "I guess I'm just lucky." He elbowed my side and motioned to a pair of people who were whispering to each other. They had their eyes trained on us, and for a second, I thought I saw one set of eyes flash red. I must really be losing my mind, right? The other licked his lips. I felt Smosh tense next to me. He shifted on his feet, and then whispered something to me. "Run?"

I weighed our options. On one hand, we could stay here, get yelled at by a guy who crashed into us with his car, and be in danger from 2 creeps that are possibly Erasers. On the other hand, we could run, not going any particular direction, and find a place to get furniture from, and find a good place to take off from. It's a no-brainer.

I leaned towards Smosh. "Run."

We turned and started sprinting down the street, away from all the people. The man shouted at us to come back, but when I looked back, he wasn't chasing after us, nor was anybody else.

"This… is… your… fault," Smosh said in between breaths. His feet were slamming on the pavement unevenly with every step he took.

"Are you… alright?" I asked, breathing difficultly as we sprinted past brick buildings. "What's… wrong?"

"Well… I just… Got hit… By a car," he managed.

I looked back to see that nobody was following us. I slowed down until I was no longer moving. Smosh stopped running, too. His breaths were shaky, and he clutched his side, his back stiffening as he moved his arm.

"Jeez," I said. "Are you sure we don't need to go back home?"

He looked at me with a 'you've got to be kidding me' face. "Of course we can't go home. The flock is expecting furniture, and do we have any? No."

I eyed his face; the distinct tighten of his jaw, the line his eyebrows drew across his face as he grimaced in pain.

"But you just got hit by a car!"

"Really? No kidding!"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Can I at least look at the damage?"

Smosh nodded. He looked around, doing a quick 360 and scanning the area for any walker-bys. Then when he saw that the coast was clear, he pulled his shirt up, just enough to see the huge string of bruises going up his back along his spine. They extended towards the front of his ribcage, different shades of black, blue, purple, and yellow-ish. A gasp escaped my mouth. I brought my hand up to his spine, where the bruises were worst, and gently brushed my hand along them. He cringed and drew away from me, as if he was a vampire and my hand was a cross. He pulled his shirt back down.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"No duh, 'ow'!" I said. "You got hit by a car! But if you really think that we should find some furniture, then we can go look around quickly and see what we can find."

He nodded, and we set off down the road again. After a few minutes, we reached a building with a sign on it that said, 'Furniture, furniture, furniture!' Just our luck. We looked up at the building. It was a small warehouse with decorative windows all along the top of each wall. I looked at Smosh, and he shrugged. I walked to one of the glass doors, followed by Smosh, and was surprised to see how nicely decorated the interior of the building was. There were couches and T.V.s and washing machines and all kind of stuff. I couldn't believe my eyes, there was so much stuff. Then a young man in a red vest approached us.

"Can I help you?" he asked cheerfully. He had bright red, rosy cheeks and a friendly smile, too genuine to make any sense with where he was working. I mean, he was surrounded by awesome stuff that he could never have. I would hate that job. His bright blonde hair listened as he moved his head.

"Uh… Yeah," Smosh said. "We need at least one of everything. And a bunch of beds. And dressers. And maybe a couple shelves and stuff."

"What, are you furnishing a whole house?" the guy asked, not judgmentally, but jokingly.

"Yes," Smosh said matter-of-factly.

"Oh." The young worker –his nametag read Justin- looked at us uncomfortably, and his smile wavered. But then he gave us an even bigger smile. "Right this way, please."

3 and ½ hours and a house worth's full of furniture later, everything was packed into a large truck outside. Justin had had help loading all of our stuff from other workers while I made Smosh act like he wasn't nearly as strong as he actually was by not lifting anything. Justin had told us to lead the way to our house so the driver could deliver our furniture, and then he called his manager to tell him about his huge sale, which was actually non-existent. You didn't really think we had enough money to pay for all that, did you? Pfft… Who are we, James Patterson? **(Author's Note: I don't really know how much money James Patterson makes off of his books, but if his books are good enough to have this many fan-fictions based on them, I think he deserves more. If any of you people out there know James Patterson personally, I'm so jealous and please tell him I said that he deserves more money.)**

No. My plan was to wait till everything was packed up, steal the truck, drive it home, unpack, then maybe return the truck if I felt like it. It would no doubt be difficult, but since when was my life ever easy? Exactly. Okay, so the plan wasn't fool-proof, but it was better than nothing.

So when Justin gave the "good-to-go" signal to the truck driver, Smosh and I sprang into action. We sprinted out the back door and jumped the driver who, like Justin, was wearing a red vest. We pulled the door open right as he was slamming it shut. Smosh grabbed him by his collar, ignoring the shouts and hollers coming from him and other workers running towards us, and yanked him out of the seat, tossing him on the ground. He jumped in, and I followed him. He scooted over to the passenger seat and allowed me to slide into the driver's seat. The keys were luckily in the ignition, and I started the truck. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to drive, much less how to drive a huge, cargo-shipping truck and everything I knew about driving I had learned from T.V., which had not given me nearly enough information. But after I had gotten the hang of turning the huge steering wheel, I started zooming down the roads in this small town. I was crashing into signs, street lamps, curbs, trees, and other objects I could not identify. I noticed that Smosh was tense the entire drive, and his how jaw tightened at every turn and bump. He was gripping the bottom of the seat the entire time, and I could hear how fast his breaths were. I heard police sirens in the distance and put more weight on the gas pedal, much to Smosh's dislike, I think. We reached a bridge, and I thought it led to our island. _I thought Atia said nobody knew about our island!_ I thought.

"She did."

I jumped in my seat and gave a small yelp.

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked.

"Umm… Yeah. Did you not mean to?" Smosh asked, confused and nervous.

"Not really."

"Well, we should destroy this bridge once we're across it. That way we're isolated from people and everything else," he suggested.

I nodded as we crossed the bridge, imagining all the ways we could destroy the bridge. It would be really fun. Out of the rear-view mirror, I saw the 2 guys from before, and they both had nasty grins plastered on their faces. They both had red eyes, I was sure of it. I looked at Smosh quickly, only for a split-second, but when I looked back at the mirror, the men had vanished. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, not worried about crashing into anything on the empty bridge, then opened them, trying to make sense of what I had just seen as I drove onto our forest-y island. I ended up driving through trees, bushes, and brambles on the way to our house. We bumped into logs and tree stumps, making the both of us bounce up and nearly hit our heads on the roof of the truck. We pulled up next to the house, creating a large commotion, and I watched as the rest of the Flock run out of the house. We hopped out of the truck and everyone gave us quizzical expressions.

"A truck? You stole a _truck_?!" Switch squeaked in surprise.

"Not steal," I corrected. "Borrowed."

"If you didn't have permission, then it's not borrowing," Kaito said, a smile on his face. "But you can just say that you stole a truck –and I assume the furniture inside it, right? We're not gonna turn you in to the cops or anything."

"Fine, whatever. Let's just get this stuff inside," I said grumpily.

Smosh turned and went around to the back of the truck followed by Tara. They opened the door, and started unloading furniture. Artie was chirping away to Smosh, telling him about what they did that day so far. Crevice and Switch were talking to each other as they both carried one end of a couch into the house. Kaito carried in a nightstand. We all started unpacking the furniture. I was so relieved that we were back, all together. And soon we would be settled and we could all live in peace again. Soon nobody would bother us, and we could be free as birds.

As I was lying in bed that night, the only thing I could think about was the 2 men I saw on the other island. I couldn't tell if they were imaginary or real, and if they were real, if they were really Erasers or just normal people. The thoughts gnawed at the inside of my head until I finally managed to fall asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**POV: Ari**

I saw her. On the island. She was there with… the big one, the strong one. She was the best fighter, the best Eraser at the School. The Whitecoats gave her so much praise. Then she went bad. She was always a bad one, too full of herself. The Whitecoats saw it, too. So they punished her by making her work with the one of the smaller ones, the small one with short, black hair and no tongue… Atia! That's her name. But Kimu and the other bird-kids became friends. It wasn't fair, I was always asking to play with Kimu, but she just went to talk with the bird-kids. Then they all escaped, and the scientists sent us out to look for them. After months of searching, a team of Erasers found them in the mountains or something. They somehow lost in a fight against the Flock, and the bird-kids escaped. They were gone for no more than a week, and here comes Kimu and… Smosh, causing a big scene in the area that I've been assigned to. It was perfect. I feel it was destiny.

The other flock escaped, too. That was a few years earlier, though. I had been one of the Erasers sent to look for them, but I never found them. My father was too good at hiding to let them be found. He loved them, all of them. I don't know why he didn't take the older flock with him; they probably would've been easier to travel with, not as annoying. Although I can't vouch for all of them. If I remember correctly, the red-headed girl was always complaining and shouting at the scientists, and the small, blonde girl was so rude to everyone. Even me.

The other flock was annoying, too, of course. Fang was always talking to Max, always keeping her for himself. Nudge, like Artie of this flock, was always talking: blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Non-stop. The tall strawberry blonde, Iggy, was cool, though. The other two, the only real siblings, never said much, seeing as they were practically babies. Those 2 were the only ones I could actually stand.

The scientists wanted all 13 of the bird-kids back, and now, after months of searching for any of them, I found the 2 that can lead me right to the others. It was perfect. Perfect. And I would follow them back to their house, or wherever they were staying.

I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and go to the first number in my contacts. "Subjects have been spotted," I said into the microphone. For a while, there was no response. Then-

"Wonderful, Ari." I know that voice anywhere. It's my father. Jeb. "We'll send in backup right away." Then the receiver clicks, and the line is dead.

I know what I have to do. I decided to follow them back. They crossed the bridge, so that's where I went. I would find them, then the other flock, then Jeb's wonderful creations would be back where they should've been, and there would be no one standing in the way of me and my dad. Jeb. It would be just us, just a father and son, the way it should be.


End file.
